Coalition wants to make it easier for small parties to participate in federal elections

Election poster of the Bavarian Party (archive image from 2009)

Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

So far, the hurdles have been high: if small parties want to run for the federal election, they have to submit thousands of so-called support signatures beforehand.

Collecting these signatures is not that easy in times of pandemics - home visits and information stands on marketplaces are not easily possible in view of the current contact restrictions.

Therefore, the coalition wants to facilitate access to this year's general election for small parties by amending the electoral law.

»The coalition factions have agreed to introduce their own draft law to reduce the quorum of signatures as soon as possible.

The details are currently being agreed, "said the legal advisor of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group, Ansgar Heveling, to SPIEGEL.

Heveling expressed himself independently of the recent decision of the Federal Constitutional Court.

The court had dismissed the action of two smaller parties - the Bayernpartei and the MLPD - on Tuesday as insufficiently justified.

At the same time, however, the highest judges had urged the legislature to review the previous quorums.

The background to the two constitutional complaints is the fact that parties that are currently not represented by at least five members in the Bundestag or in a Landtag have to submit up to 2000 signatures from eligible voters per Land list and 200 per direct candidate for approval. The signatures are intended to ensure that there are only "serious proposals" for election that find a "significant number of supporters in the electorate," said the Federal Returning Officer. The two plaintiffs argued that collecting signatures under pandemic conditions would be much more difficult and that this would violate their equal opportunities.

In the most recent state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the number of signatures there has already been reduced; for the upcoming parliamentary elections in Berlin, which will take place in parallel to the federal elections on September 26, this will also happen after a ruling by the Constitutional Court there.

SPD now also openly in the Bundestag

For a long time there had been no movement in the matter in the Bundestag, although Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) had already suggested a lowering of the quorums at the beginning of March after the "Liberal Conservative Reformers" (LKR) had previously written a letter to him and the Parliamentary groups in the Bundestag.

Since the transfer of two ex-AfD members, the LKR has been represented by two members in the Bundestag.

Within the grand coalition, the SPD was also open to change last week.

Your rapporteur on the electoral law, Mahmut Özdemir, had declared in a speech in the plenary last Thursday that the SPD was committed to the diversity of the party landscape and equal opportunities.

"We took generous advice on this issue to the effect that we would lower the quorums together with all parties," the SPD MP continued.

Greens with their own bill

Last week, the Greens parliamentary group introduced its own draft law to the Bundestag, which provides for the previous quorum to be reduced to 30 percent of the previous value.

Despite the failed lawsuit by the Bavarian Party and MLPD, Britta Haßelmann, the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the Greens, sees the need for changes as soon as possible. The Federal Constitutional Court made it clear that the legislature was obliged to review the current legal situation. "Simply shrugging our shoulders and ignoring the more difficult pandemic conditions for smaller parties is not an option for us," she told SPIEGEL. The "vague announcements by the Union and the SPD that they want to become active now must now be followed by action."

For the Greens, it is "a question of fairness that smaller parties must be able to meet the requirements for participation in the federal election even during the corona pandemic," said Haßelmann.

It is high time that the Bundestag tackled a solution to the problem on this issue and that Parliament made a decision as soon as possible.

FDP for moderate lowering

A broad consensus could possibly emerge in the Bundestag.

FDP interior expert Konstantin Kuhle was also open to SPIEGEL for lowering the quorums.

However, the Federal Constitutional Court also found that even in times of the corona pandemic, not every collection of signatures by parties is unreasonable.

"In order to ensure a legally secure process for the Bundestag election, the Bundestag should now consider a moderate reduction in the required number of support signatures," said the FDP internal politician. At the same time, however, the parties concerned should continue to collect signatures "as far as possible".